Blurb:
Rojan Ja’Dar is a rogue, a pirate that buys and sells cargo for a living. He is his own man, skirting the edge of the law and answering to no one. Arriving on a particular planet, he goes to drop off cargo and discovers a human pet being sold at an auction house. Intrigued, Rojan breaks all his rules and buys the human as his pet. It isn’t until after he purchases the human that Rojan discovers he just bought his mate.
Claiming Tyion is not as easy as buying him. Not understanding the danger he is in, Tyion fights his situation as a highly prized and sought after pet in Rojan’s world. Rojan has to convince Tyion that being his mate is not as bad as being a pet, even if they have to pretend to the rest of the world that Tyion is just a possession. That is hard to do when someone is after Tyion, someone not from Earth.

Dear Ms. Glenn,

Once upon a time I had a dream. A seven- foot -tall werewolf look -alike alien was punishing his tiny pet, who had long white blond hair and a nicely curved ass. Wait, no, the pet was actually his mate, and human. I decided I wanted to share with you the story that caused me to have that dream (twice).

Rojan (the alien character) visits a slave action somewhere in the galaxy and decides to buy himself a pet. The human race is considered a weaker race in this world, but they make great pets. Of course humans have no idea that other races think of them as weaker ones. They do not know that the other races exist because they exist on another planets and galaxies. I started to wonder whether this assumption that one race is weaker than everybody else, which we are supposed to take as a given will morph into something. Unfortunately that did not happen. Humans are good pets, that’s all you need to know and for all his scary first impression Rojan makes a surprisingly kind enough master, if he is obeyed.

Moreover, Rojan figures out after his first examination of his pet that this pet is also his mate (don’t ask!), so I was pretty sure that the story was also supposed to be very romantic.

I think in making Tyion both a pet and a mate, the story failed for me. It tried to be both – erotica and romance – and instead of becoming erotic romance it just did not work at all for this reader. By introducing the concept of a pet, the story introduces the themes of dominance and submission and I love those themes when I think it is well written. I was prepared to enjoy the story for what it was, even though we are not supposed to think too hard (or at all?) about the fact that it is perfectly okay to kidnap humans from their homes to sell to the aliens because humans do “extremely well as pets” and have very limited rights because they are not the members of Alliance, never mind that they were not even aware of the existence of that Alliance. So Rojan can do anything to his pet, punish him as he pleases – all for his own safety, etc. – and in the meantime have sex with him. And I have to say that kind of forced but not really forced initial sexual interactions were pretty hot for me. I mean, if you think about it, of course it is forced – because the guy is kidnapped, sold into slavery, etc. But, he enjoys it right away and again, I do not think we are supposed to think much about it.

“Then you have two choices, pet,” Rojan said. “You can obey my every word and accept me as your master or I can leave you here to be trained by guards then sold at auction. What’s it going to be?”

“Wha—what does being a pet mean?”

“It means you belong to me and only me.” Rojan smirked as he walked around to stand behind the human. He reached down to grasp the human’s ass cheeks in his hand, giving them a gentle squeeze. “Obey me and you’ll be rewarded.”

Rojan let loose with a quick swat across the man’s ass. “Disobey me and you will be punished.” The man cried out, his body arching away from the smack. Even if his cries denied it, the human’s body could not hide his response. He enjoyed it.”

But that tiny human Tyion is also Rojan’s mate – so Rojan wants to protect him, cherish him, for the rest of his life. I can see how this set up can hit hurt/comfort buttons, but I was left wondering how he could be mate and slave at the same time – just felt very jarring for me.
Of course, I do not look for the in depth character development in this story – just some development would be nice. I suppose Tyion having a temper and learning to submit to Rojan should count as development, but it all happened so fast that I was not really buying it as character development, but rather Insta!Love of super- instant variety.

By the way, when they finally do get around to their mating interaction, it was another nightmare- inducing (or very funny, take your pick) sexual moment.

““It’s called a knot,” Rojan was amused by the redness of Tyijon’s face, especially considering that they were still connected. “

When a Phangar claims his mate , his cock swells during the claiming and knots inside his chosen one.”

“Why?”

For many reasons, I suspect,”

Rojan said. “If my chosen mate had been a female it would ensure that we were together long enough that my seed would take root”.

I can recommend it for relatively hot sex (if you like spanking in your sex scenes and dicks that create knots while inside of you) and for a humor, which I am not sure the writer intended to be in the story, but for nothing else really. D

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Sirius

Sirius started reading books when she was four and reading and discussing books is still her favorite hobby. One of her very favorite gay romances is Tamara Allen’s Whistling in the Dark. In fact, she loves every book written by Tamara Allen. Amongst her other favorite romance writers are Ginn Hale, Nicole Kimberling, Josephine Myles, Taylor V. Donovan and many others. Sirius’ other favorite genres are scifi, mystery and Russian classics.
Sirius also loves travelling, watching movies and long slow walks.

It is Tyion I think but I will double check. If I were to speculate I would think the writer wanted alien to have alien sound name and for Tyion to have something unusual because he is the pet/mate of the alien? But there is a secondary character named Cory and another secondary character named Harry if that helps? ;). Agree about dim humans though.

Funny what squicks me out. The knotted dick thing really gets me. Think I first read that in a Lora Leigh novella with one of her feline shape shifters – I could tell reading it that it was supposed to be sexy but not for me. Ick. I get vaginitis just thinking about it. And with anal sex – even worse. Now I have the heebie jeebies.

@Sirius: I was familiar with the concept from canine contexts, but haven’t read a story that uses it convincingly (to me) in a romance/erotic romance setting. Of course, my sample group is really small (two stories), but I’m willing to follow an excellent author anywhere. Almost anywhere. Ok, not really anywhere. I dunno. Sometimes I feel like I should take on these things as a challenge to find out if there’s a story that makes an out-of-my-comfort-zone concept work for me as a reader.

The “knotting” business is apparently a THING within the were/pack/AU end of fanfic fandom. Someone whose blog I read posted an explanation with some links to more explanation. Looks like it’s osmosising over to the commercial side, as so many things do.

Now that I think about it, I believe I read a version of the knotting thing that worked better for me in an Emma Holly PNR – The Queen of all She Surveys, part of the Beyond the Dark anthology. The hero isn’t a shifter / were-creature, he’s “god touched” and I’m pretty sure something odd happens with his dick when he’s having sex with the heroine (I’m not a hundred percent sure – it was a library book so can’t look it up – but iirc, some sort of knotting thing happened and it didn’t completely squick me out.)

I totally love that the entire thread is about this – I’m learning so much :)

So…I hesitate to admit that I’ve read this because the internet is forever, BUT…PETS by Darla Phelps does a really good job with the “aliens who think humans are pets” trope. (It’s a trope? It must be a trope.)

It’s remarkable because it takes the premise seriously. What kind of aliens would keep humans as pets? What would they think about humans? These aliens are an advanced species, they believe in treating other creatures humanely, so what’s their justification?

The book has very little sex but a whole lot of–not surprising!–pet play. Not my thing, so I found it all horrifying, and maybe I was meant to. It’s told entirely from the alien’s point of view, so the abducted human is miserable and suffering but her emotions are sort of muted throughout.

Okay. Just throwing that out there. I admired the book even if it wasn’t my thing.

@Susan: I have read another one by her called (I think) “Katzman’s mate” (I hope I am not butchering spelling here. Two books rule I usually have about trying a new author worked perfectly in this case. I am never coming back.

@Erin Satie: I have read one story which I thought dealt with this trope (if as you say it is a trope). I thought it was a fantastic story, but I will never reread it again – did not feel it was a happy story, but IMO this trope cannot give you a happy story if it is done in depth and not for laughs, etc.

Tweets

Copyright

FTC Disclaimer

We do not purchase all the books we review here. Some we receive from the authors, some we receive from the publisher, and some we receive through a third party service like Net Galley. Some books we purchase ourselves. Login